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UPDATE 13h40m HST/EST According to local law enforcement the gunman who has killed five people in three Montogomery County,PA townships has escaped from his position barricaded in a home in Souderton and remains at large.

A gunman has killed five people in the Montgomery County, PA towns of Lower Salford, Souderton and Pennsburg. Media outlets in Philadelphia are reporting the shooter is barricaded in a home in Souderton and is a male military veteran.

[Ed. Note: regarding the “Michael Brown criminal history” blurb found at Chimpout.com, this seems to be false as best as I can find on Casenet from the State of Missouri these charges do not match with anyone named Michael Brown on the date 2 November 2013. The first posting seems to come from Phil Janovick of Merrillville, Indiana two days ago at the Fox2Now website about the looting,–F.S.]

It comes as no surprise in the current political age in America that the murder of a young, unarmed, black man by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri has sparked no comment by conservatives but the violence and looting that took place afterward has. The most important thing in this case is the Truth and that must be found. I have little confidence now since the police officer involved in the shooting will not be named publicly out of “fear for his safety.” My question: What about Michael Brown’s safety?

Here are some of the comments from conservative blog GatewayPundit. These comments make clear the divide between people who want to be free and those who after centuries of victimization and blame demand to be treated as equals in a free society:

Bluffcreek1967
Blacks do what blacks do because that’s who they are! Their low-ghetto culture and skyrocketing levels of crime is but a reflection of who these people are inherently.

This is why every effort to civilize blacks worldwide on the part of whites has been completely unsuccessful. While some individual blacks have managed to break free from the ghetto undertow, the dominant majority have not and actually refuse to reform their ways.

When are whites going to realize that not all racial groups are the same? That some of them are helplessly backwards and will forever remain a low-IQ people?

Reality is a bitch!

Slave2Liberty
The only thing inherent in the black culture is the left’s race-hustling and exploitation for political purpose.

Even your flagrant racism is not inherent – just ignorant. Maybe, you don’t understand American history, but before FDR and even before Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Welfare Society” programs, black communities had a much higher rate of two parent households and a solid grounding in family and faith.

The Democrats and fanatical social justice, race hustlers are to blame for fueling the hatred, dependency and despair in the black community. Considering the left’s dependency mentality, favoritism for ILLEGAL aliens, self-hating white guilt liberalism, and affirmative action nonsense – the only result can be a culture that feels dependent on the hand that they believe is attached to the arm of the white devil.

Bluffcreek1967
Good grief, you’re making this much too easy.

Yes, it’s true that prior to the welfare state black families were much more intact and their savagery was not as bad. But that was because blacks were restrained by Jim Crow laws which curbed their criminal proclivities. Once those restraining laws were removed via the Leftist ‘civil rights movement,’ blacks exploded on American society.

Jim Crow laws were designed to protect whites from known black brutality. We often forget that our white ancestors had a long history with blacks and were quite familiar with their savage and impulsive ways. Now that such laws have been removed, look at what ‘diversity’ has given us.

Liberals and black race hustlers are definitely part of the problem, but it’s also because whites became soft and believed the multicultural lie that ‘We’re all the same” and that there were no inherent differences between the races.

MLK wanted blacks to be judged by the ‘content of their character’ and not by their skin color. Well, guess what? Whites have! And that’s why we avoid them like the plague. It’s the CHARACTER issue not the SKIN COLOR issue!

Blacks do what blacks do because that’s who they are inherently!

The multi-racial rainbow has been a complete lie!

dj

The left do not believe in facts. What counts in this nation is what they perceive things to be. That’s the whole problem….people need to start standing up and PUSHING BACK on this crap. There should be people, supporting this policeman for doing his job there at these rallies and pushing back against this. People are cowards; afraid to stand up for justice. Sickening.

dixiesuzan

There are no “riots”, there are only protests.

And then there’s this from an unregistered guest at the odious website Chimpout.com. This thread is trending heavily on conservative sites:

Here is Michael Brown’s rap sheet on casenet. Note that he has a juvenile criminal record that is sealed !!

Variety is reporting this morning that former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is launching her own Internet television channel called TheSarahPalinChannel.com. Palin claims the channel will focus on, “important issues facing the nation” stating she wants, “to talk to talk directly to you on our channel– on my terms.” Those terms it seems are $9.95 per month or an annual subscription of $99.95.

Above you can see Palin’s target audience discussing one of those issues important to the American people– immigration. There are hundreds of thousands of these bigots, conspiracy theorists and generally uninformed individuals clustered in all across America I am told by my human colleagues. The good news is that this Palin channel will become the gift that keeps on giving for Progressives as the midterm elections roll around in just over three three months.

In my travels I hear quite a bit about low information voters. There seem to be quite a bit of people who become low information voters because once the boxes that appeal to them have been ticked, they cease to listen to anything that deviates from their beliefs. This can happen on both sides of the political divide in America today. I have seen this recently, meaning over the past six years more on the Right than the Left.

A recent post at Breitbart.com can act as a clear illustration of this premise. Sarah Palin’s facebook post about celebrating Freedom and not Government was met with harsh criticism from the Left which provoked harsh responses from the Right. As much as this was expected, I was surprised when a commenter tried to compare and contrast the stands that Palin takes vice what he feels as a conservative what Obama/Clinton stand for politically:

For the purpose of clarity I feel it is my duty to point out the fallacies and misinformation in this list. The poster has clearly placed his/her own beliefs into what he feels a proper candidate for President should hold as values when in fact none of these are true factors in what makes someone suitable to hold the highest elected office in America. Once again, a conservative is trying to use “shaming” and the fear of ostracism by not being accepted by a group he feels is the majority to elevate an unqualified person to a state of qualification.

1. Conservative v Liberal/Progressive

Ms Palin is a conservative but in opinion she is more of TEA Party conservative than an establishment one. Ms Clinton is a pragmatist who has a more centrist political view that most political scientists would call “progressive.”

2. loving God v. hating God

I would begin with the question which God? Or even better whose God? The commenter being a conservative clearly means the Christian God as to the bulk of American conservatives this is one true god. Unfortunately for conservatives, there is no religious test for being President of the United States. Having a president that shares their religious beliefs and values might give those voters on the right a warm fuzzy but it isn’t a constitutional requirement. Equally, I see no proof from Ms Clinton’s actions as Secretary of State that she hates the Christian God or that President Obama hates the Christian God. These people are politicians not students at a theological school running for recording secretary. Religion does not matter in this debate because people can have no religion and be ethical moral people and people who wear their religion on their chests can act in terribly immoral and unethical ways.

3. Loving the founding fathers v hating the founding fathers.

I have a very big problem with the use of the word hate here but it does serve a purpose. The reference to the founding fathers of America is a dog whistle of code of white male conservatives. It means Hillary is bringing feminine power that will make white conservative men obeisant to her authority; an authority that terrifies men who have had it their way since the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Second it is more code to the disrespect white conservative men feel at having to acknowledge a person of color as their Chief Executive. As much as it causes eye rolling on the Right the bigotry on the Right regarding America’s first black president has been a torrent of disrespect as has never been seen in American politics. Of course, to say this it becomes clear that Palin as a candidate will bow to male hegemony and respect and protect white male conservative unearned privilege.

As I have written many times the abortion debate is less about sex and more about demographics. For decades the fear that their would become a balance between the majority white American population and the minority population has fueled the anti-abortion movement. Sure there are a small percentage of people from the minority camp that see this as a moral issue but the bulk of the anti-abortion power brokers are in this fight not for God but for votes. If the numbers of white women in the south and Midwest having abortions dwindled to near zero many of the people who pour billions into the anti-abortion crusade would spent their political capital elsewhere. It really doesn’t matter what a President palin thinks about unborn babies what really matters is that Roe v Wade is settled case law.

Since I don’t have the time nor the desire to write a multichapter several hundred page work of non fiction on this topic I will distill my comments to a few sentences. Traditional marriage one hundred years ago, in 1914, meant in several states that only a man and a woman of the same race could marry and that the woman had no property rights within that marriage. Just over fifty years later traditional marriage had changed to allow men and women of different races to marry, something that would have caused a firestorm of controversy in 1914 much like the controversy in America surrounding same sex marriage in 2014. The comment attempts, poorly, to conflate two men or two women marrying with incest which is illegal in every state in the Union. Despite a federal ruling, 12 states still have anti-sodomy laws on the books making sex between those of the same gender illegal and oral and anal sex among married couples illegal as well. I don’t know of a single advocate for same sex marriage who wants siblings to be able to marry each other or parents to be able to marry children. This line of thinking is horribly fallacious.

6. Defender of the Constitution v attacker of the COnstitution

Yet another code word canard for “in support of white privilege v attacker of white privilege.”

7. less government control and regulations and more individual’s freedom/liberty v more government control/regulations and less individual’s freedom/liberty

There is little Sarah Palin can do to make America more individually free. In reality one of the things conservatives understand the least is that of the rules one has to follow on a daily basis in America local and state laws come into play far more than federal regulations. I believe this commenter is making an appeal here against ObamaCare, poorly, and a veiled reference to Progressives wanting to take guns away from the American people.

8. low taxes/letting people keep more of what they earned v high taxes/ripping off people

I have always liked the argument of allowing people who want to pay no taxes to have to put a coin in their toilet to flush it each time and then see how they feel about taxation. None of these conservatives seem to be able to twig to the notion that it isn’t the taxes it’s the wages. Raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour and one would see a renaissance in the American economy that might hold until the early decades of the 22nd century according to our lead economist Carlton Pryor. The only people being ripped off in America are those who have lost middle class status, the truly disabled and those working 40 hours a week for minimum wage being called “moochers” by the Right.

There is a cancer in the minds of conservatives that America would be energy independent if they could just control two branches of the government. That is one of the greatest economic and political lies ever told. Conservatives like the commenter still believe that if America drills for its own oil they could produce the 22 million bbl a day they need to keep the freedom of cars and personal transportation which is at the heart of their belief about freedom. Many petroleum scientists feel that close to half of the oil in the ground on Terra has been removed. The Rham Institute for Resource Studies estimates that by 2020 45% of the oil will have been pumped and by 2050 that number will be 55%. It would seem prident that in the coming decades America would want to keep some of its own oil in the ground. However, the drilling on government land, in Alasaka’s ANWR would not result in lower prices because the market sets the price based on supply. Over supply by America would be met with reduced production by OPEC. According to an April 2014 report of American oil resources 43% of oil was locked in federal lands and the total oil reserves on and offshore were 67.41 billion bbl. At current usage rates this would last 8.7 years. I’m agnostic on global warming or climate change; I’ll leave that debate to climate scientists.

I don’t know what irresponsible spending Obama has done that has harmed the US economy. Palin has had no experience since resigning as Alaska Governor so she doesn’t have any federal budgetary experience. Per Carlton Pryor, Lead Economist TED-OG, “[She] was a supporter of the war in Iraq which was a waste of $3 trillion which would have nearly fully reversed the Great Recession by paying $32,000 to every working American over the age of 16. This would have been a more prudent measure had the Great Recession been properly foreseen.”

12. free market capitalism/no crony capitalism v socialism

This is another red herring. America is a curious economic admixture of socialism [Social Security, Medicaid] and capitalism [tax breaks for oil companies and off shore accounts for corporate persons]. I can only imagine this is a feaful swipe at Obama/Clinton and knowing that if HRC is elected single payer will come to pass by the end of her first term.

Where do I begin? This seems to go against the religious ethic of helping the poor, but that would be a facile digression. Once again, Carlton Pryor, “The bank bailout, done during the Bush II administration was a necessary first step toward pushing back from the precipice of Depression. Had this and the Stimulus not been done we would not be having this conversation but rather a conversation about whether America would recover economically in time to save itself as a nation. Now with the American economy finally healing a 2016 election of Ms Palin and retrograde economists that would advise her would be to run headlong toward that cliff and leap, on faith, to demise.”

14. helping the helpless, not the clueless v getting the clueless/useful idiots become addicted to free stuffs/entitlement programs

Well I would imagine this commenter want President Palin to do away with Social Security, which is an entitlement program and allow millions of Baby Boomers to be reduced to eating pet food or starving to death in the streets. This isn’t hyperbole, this is what would happen under this sort of draconian economic policy.

Bad behaviors are most often not rewarded in America. Counties, cities and states all have laws to punish criminals. On the immigration front I stand on the fact that what made America great were the immigrants who to this day provide the diversity needed to maintain a powerful democracy. Bergdahl? I’ll leave that to the Judge Advocate General to investigate his status and whether a Court Martial is required.

16. Saving America from bankruptcy v Bankrupting America

I honestly don’ t know what Palin can do, without a cooperative Congress, from 2017 until 2021 to save America from bankruptcy. If anything her administration’s potential policies will send America into that abyss.

President Barack Obama, with First Lady Michelle Obama, delivers remarks during a reception celebrating Black History Month in the East Room of the White House, Feb. 26, 2015. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza) Watch on YouTube In 1926, the great historian and author Carter G. Woodson pioneered "Negro History Week" — a time set aside to hon […]

"Thank you for the Affordable Care Act. Because of it, I have been able to get health insurance for just about $52 a month." She wasn't going to sign up. But on the last day of Open Enrollment last year, Lori's mom insisted that she at least check out HealthCare.gov. Surprised by the reasonable rates, Lori signed up for an affordable pl […]

Thursday was a historic day for the Internet. The FCC voted in favor of a strong net neutrality rule to keep the Internet open and free. This didn’t just happen over night and by no means was it easy. It happened because millions of Americans across the country didn’t just care about securing an open and free Internet, spoke out. More than 4 million people w […]

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to Congress has been covered as a spectacle orchestrated (perhaps in a misguided fashion) by the conservative GOP-Likud alliance to undercut President Barack Obama's effort to reach a deal with Iran limiting that government's nuclear program. But this stunt did highlight a significant aspect o […]

Throughout the controversy set off by a recent Mother Jones article about Bill O'Reilly's mischaracterizations of his wartime reporting experience, the Fox News host has angrily insisted that "everything" he has said about his journalistic track record has been accurate. But his accounts have been contradicted by O'Reilly's form […]

CBS News today posted its reports from Buenos Aires at the end of the Falklands war, in response to a request from Fox News host Bill O'Reilly, who has been seeking to counter reports that he mischaracterized his wartime reporting experience. But rather than bolstering O'Reilly's description of the anti-government protest he says he covered as […]

Last week, after Mother Jones published an article by Daniel Schulman and me reporting on Bill O'Reilly's mischaracterizations of his wartime reporting experience, the Fox News host replied with insult, denial, threatening rhetoric, and bombast. Insult: He called me a "liar," a "despicable guttersnipe," and "garbage." […]

On Thursday, Mother Jones published an article by Daniel Schulman and me documenting how Fox News host Bill O'Reilly has mischaracterized his wartime reporting experience. It noted that he has repeatedly stated that during his short stint as a CBS correspondent in the 1980s, he was in the "war zone" during the Falklands war between the United […]

House Speaker John Boehner has learned (yet again) what happens when you play zero-sum politics. Sometimes you end up with nothing, and that's what will happen later today, it appears. Slate: House Speaker John Boehner told his GOP caucus Tuesday morning that the lower chamber will vote as soon as later Tuesday to fund the Department of Homeland Securit […]

Today's display by Bibi Netanyahu before a joint session of Congress was predictably extreme with predictable adulation by his Republican worshippers, but it's not that much different or any less wrong than the speech he delivered in 2002 when he told Congress that Iraq had nuclear weapons, pinky swear they did. We all know how that turned out, don […]

If I had a dime for every foreign country Republican bedwetters like Jason Chaffetz call "the worst threat to the United States there is" I'd be a rich woman who could afford to shove my middle finger in his face without a care in the world. I suppose I should be grateful that Iran has now supplanted Obamacare as "the biggest threat" […]

Total destruction gives conservatives a better erection than Viagra. Look no further than Kurt Schlicter's column over at Townhall.com today, aptly entitled "Let's Destroy Liberal Academia." It reads like the soft porn of conservatives' manifesto. To be a conservative is to desire the complete and absolute destruction of anyone and a […]

First, they came for campaign finance. Now they're nibbling away at redistricting without corrupt, power-hungry politicians, and they're using the Supreme Court to do it. ThinkProgress: It is not at all clear how the Supreme Court will decide Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission, a lawsuit brought by the state’s […]

Just before 20:00 Tuesday evening, the airline Norwegian announced that they were going to cancel all domestic flights within Sweden, Norway and Denmark because of the pilot strike, according to news agency NTB.

New statistics of book sales from 2014 in Sweden show that children are reading more books, but adults less, than the previous year.

Ny publicering - 800 Norwegian staff "will be sent home without pay" 03/03/2015

The airline Norwegian will send 800 of its cabin crew staff home without pay from Wednesday onwards, unless the pilot strike is ended before then, the tabloid Aftonbladet reports.

Nytt poddradioavsnitt - 3rd March 2015 03/03/2015

The Swedish government is to look into scrapping its budget surplus target, There's controversy over armed vehicles sold by Sweden to the Czech Republic, that are now being sold on to Iraq. Escalators across the Stockholm metro system are still shut due to safety concerns, leaving commuters out of breath. and what if looking for work could be more like […]

Media outlets are holding former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to a higher standard by scandalizing her use of personal email while at the State Department, claiming the practice raises questions about her "transparency." In reality, other public officials -- including former Florida Governor Jeb Bush (R), who is attacking Clinton over the ema […]

From the March 3 edition of Premiere Radio Networks' The Rush Limbaugh Show: Related: In Speech To Congress, Netanyahu Blasts 'A Very Bad Deal' With Iran Previously: Delusional Limbaugh: Obama Was "Bashing Israel" In UN Speech Praised By NetanyahuLimbaugh: Obama Urged Israel To "Destroy Itself" And "Submit Its Peopl […]

The New York Times accused Hillary Clinton of potentially violating federal law pertaining to the preservation of e-mail records while acting as Secretary of State, but requirements to maintain such records did not exist during her tenure.The New York Times Accused Clinton Of Possible Wrong-Doing With Usage Of Non-Government Emails NYT: Clinton's Use Of […]

Always viewing conflicts through the prism of partisan warfare, conservative media have been faced with a stark choice as Bill O'Reilly's long list of confirmed fabrications pile up in public view. They can defend the Fox News host no matter what, while lashing out his "far-left" critics for daring to fact-check the host. Or, conservative […]

Chris Cox, the National Rifle Association's top lobbyist, falsely claimed that a recent move by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) to ban a type of armor-piercing ammunition is motivated by animus towards women. In fact, the proposal aims to protect law enforcement officers. On February 13 the ATF published a letter describin […]

Support indie erotica: Our Filthy Housewives (Amazon) is where all sales go to the authors! Pornhub is developing a wearable meant for… shaking. And beating. It’s called the Wankband, and it supposedly will help you charge your gadgets by jacking off. Finally: A Wearable That Lets You Charge Your Gadgets by Jerking Off (Gizmodo) Boston [...]

Before you enjoy something beautiful, sexy, and healthy (below), but notably, something that still isn’t allowed on Blogger or any Google property… Other posts have been updated, but if you missed it: On February 27 (2am PST) Google reverses porn ban on Blogger after backlash (VentureBeat) Summer Carter, Jovan Jordan – Tight Fit (image above [...]

The new issue of Treats! Magazine is out, and their cover star is Lydia Hearst (daughter of John Waters icon, former SLA machine gun-toting, IED-making, San Francisco bank robber Patricia Hearst-Shaw, aka Patty Hearst). This is cool, especially because the circus-themed art nudes shoot they did for the issue is really fun (by photographer Tony [...]

With my new indie book Filthy Housewives (here on Amazon), all sales go to the authors! Image via longtime online friend, Unscathed Corpse. Reddit announced a change to its privacy policy on Tuesday that prohibits posting nude photos or videos of people engaged in sex acts without their prior consent to have it posted. In [...]

Of the many things we discovered on the planet earth, the concept of love was the funniest. If two people agreed they were in love, they could do about anything they wanted to the each other. Mostly though, they just had a ton of sex. They had sex in automobiles, movie theaters, in churches, bathrooms, hot air balloons, giftshops, and even prisons. Oftentime […]

Whenever people get too close to me in public. I pull out my cell phone and have an intense conversation with myself about how the last supper was actually a gnostic feast of psychedelic mushrooms or how humans are obviously a by-product of aliens copulating with monkeys. And because I’m desperately trying to stay alive creatively as boring 42 year old white […]

I had a birthday recently. It wasn’t *that* birthday. But that one’s coming soon enough. My 11-year-old daughter often asks me if I “feel old.” Hell no, I tell her. I feel young. And I do. (It helps that I still eat pop tarts and, worse, enjoy them…but I digress.) So while I’m fully on board with […]

LONDON – This week, the sublimely gifted Emma Watson has taken to the stage at the World Economic Forum in Davos to exhort the corridors of power worldwide to do more to ensure that women are equal participants in the workplace. As UN Women Goodwill Ambassador – not to mention a star of one the highest […]

Have you heard? Mark Zuckerberg wants to start a book club. As one of his New Year’s Resolutions for 2015, the 30-year-old CEO of Facebook will commit to reading one new book every two weeks. He has already set up a Facebook page “The Year of the Book” and invited Facebook’s 864 million members to […]

On occasional Fridays, I point you towards some recommended reading around the blogosphere: 1. If, like me, you once harbored a fascination with Julian Assange, you’ll love this essay in the London Review of Books by Andrew O’Hagan on ghostwriting Julian Assange’s memoir. 2. I’m a huge fan of the New York Times’ Modern Love […]

On occasional Fridays, I point you towards some recommended reading around the blogosphere: 1. I absolutely loved Sir David Attenborough’s take on curling at the winter Olympics. (American readers can see it here.) 2. Equally compelling in an entirely different sort of way is this video of the train station at Alexanderplatz in Berlin. 3. […]

I decided this week to not recommend a movie about a single fool; Instead, you get one about eleven. Lars Von Trier wrote/directed thise movie that follows Stoffer and his group of friends who regularly meet up at a home … Continue reading →

This week is all about characters that we feel epitomize The Fool, a naive, inexperienced protagonist determined to find some meaning or purpose in life by embarking on a quest. I’m certain my boy Jeff (Jason Segel) definitely fits the … Continue reading →

Every journey must have a beginning, and The Fool is the starting point though the “life stages” of the Major Arcana. Arms open and chin up, the Fool sets out on his trip oblivious to the cliff he is about … Continue reading →

Although you wouldn’t know it from movies and television, there are 78 cards in a standard Tarot deck. Such decks were similar to playing cards that we use today, with the majority of cards being numerical suites, such as the … Continue reading →

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday against accepting a nuclear deal with Iran that would be a "countdown to a potential nuclear nightmare" by a country that "will always be an enemy of America".

KIEV/DONETSK, Ukraine (Reuters) - Three Ukrainian servicemen were killed and nine wounded as pro-Russian rebels shelled government positions despite a ceasefire deal, the military said on Tuesday, announcing Kiev's highest casualty toll in several days.

GENEVA (Reuters) - A United Nations envoy called on Israel on Tuesday to investigate the killing of more than 1,500 Palestinian civilians, one third of them children, during the 2014 Gaza war, and to make the findings public.

WASHINGTON/PARIS (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama and European leaders held a video conference on Tuesday to discuss the Ukraine crisis, and France said all agreed that a "strong reaction" would be necessary if the ceasefire reached last month in Minsk was violated.

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Islamist militants took over Libya's Bahi oil station and the Mabrouk oilfield on Tuesday after security forces guarding the installations were forced to retreat, according to Ali Hassi, a security official in the oil protection forces.

National Republicans may be glad the midterm elections are a year away after polls have shown the party’s favorability at all-time lows because of the federal government shutdown. But one Republican – in a swing state – is caught in the buzz saw.

Mitch McConnell's Republican primary challenger may be getting plenty of Tea Party support in his uphill campaign against the Senate minority leader, but that doesn't mean he sees himself as a Tea Party candidate.

Hillary Clinton offered some of her sharpest political rhetoric since stepping down as secretary of state on Monday when she roundly criticized stricter voter ID laws and a recent Supreme Court decision striking down a central component of the Voting Rights Act.

The Senate on Monday confirmed James Comey as the seventh director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation with a 93-1 vote. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., voted "no," becoming the first senator to vote against an FBI director since the death of J. Edgar Hoover in 1972.

So in following up the earlier post on the pathology of patriotism, I figured it might be worth re-posting links to a few additional older essays, all of which addressed this subject of “American Exceptionalism.” It is that, after all, which Rudy Giuliani and other right wingers accuse President Obama of failing to endorse (when [...]

In light of the recent ventilations of Rudy Giuliani, to the effect that President Obama doesn’t “love America” like “the rest of us do” — because of the way the president has framed, among other things, the actions of ISIS and our response to it — I thought it might be worthwhile to revisit an [...]

Can people be this illiterate? Even white nationalists? I find myself wondering this today, having come across a new posting from the Council of Conservative Citizens (which despite its rather innocuous sounding name is a well-established hate group), encouraging people to show up at my speeches over the next several months and challenge me, presumably [...]

The following is an essay by author and journalist Stacey Patton, which I have decided to publish on my site for a few important reasons: first, because as with all of her work, this piece is hard-hitting, analytically on-point and presents a vital perspective that needs to be heard; and secondly because despite the above, [...]

Many years ago, when discussing the issue of hate speech and how it should be addressed on college campuses, my friend Paul Gallegos at Evergreen State College smiled and said, “Ya know, just because speech is free, doesn’t mean that it has to be worthless.” It’s a concept and a phrasing that has stuck with [...]

The leader of an Amish splinter sect in Ohio had his prison sentence reduced by one-third Monday after a federal appeals court ruled a jury was given improper instructions before deciding it was a hate crime to forcibly shave the beards and hair of members who tried to leave. Samuel Mullet, 69, was given a […]

Pro-gun and Patriot activists say they are planning a demonstration next Friday at the U.S. Courthouse plaza in Spokane, where one of their leaders was arrested after brazenly carrying a loaded assault rifle and a semiautomatic pistol. The arrest of one-time “constitutional sheriff” candidate Anthony Bosworth last Wednesday looked almost like a scripted even […]

As police took Frazier Glenn Miller into custody minutes after three people – including a 14-year-old boy – were shot to death at two Jewish facilities in suburban Kansas City last April, the long-time neo-Nazi shouted “Heil Hitler.” Then, according to The Kansas City Star, Miller asked the officers a chilling question. “How many f——- […]

(If you’re just joining me, here are parts I and II)For many of my readers, this series may not be the most interesting thing in the world, but I do get tons and tons of inquiries about how to start a sexuality education business, and for those folks, and others who are just curious about how to turn a passion for sex ed into a lucrative business, this is fo […]

Whether traveling for business or pleasure, I’ve had no shortage of ridiculous encounters with men folk at hotels and on airplanes. It was no different late Friday night, when I was flying back to San Diego from Houston after presenting two sexuality workshops in Texas.I was in the middle seat, minding my business and reading on my Kindle, when the man sitti […]

Paul Krugman, the Nobel Prize-winning Princeton economics professor and New York Times columnist, wrote: Look, Ryan hasn’t “crunched the numbers”; he has just scribbled some stuff down, without checking at all to see if it makes sense. He asserts that he can cut taxes without net loss of revenue by closing unspecified loopholes; he asserts […]

Ok, maybe I’m missing something here but how can Mitt Romney initially support the Ryan plan, then pick Ryan for VP and THEN…reject the Ryan plan and say he’s going to create his own budget? This is beyond comprehension. A Romney spokesperson said this when asked, courtesy of CNN: 1) Does this mean Mitt Romney […]

LET THE GAMES BEGIN! GOP sources are confirming that Mitt Romney will choose Paul Ryan, the author of the end of Medicare as we know it, as his VP pick tomorrow at 9am in Virginia. More details to come. Update: Seems it’s official based on Romney’s website. A quick look around conservative and liberal blogs […]

It means Romney is getting crushed! Week after week, the Romney campaign just can’t seem to get anything to go their way. But then again, how could they? When your candidate is for and against everything, it makes it near impossible for even the sharpest Republican surrogates, to keep up and stay on message. The […]

I googled the Jerry Seinfeld episode where he traveled with his girlfriend and things did not go well. I was looking for a quote but couldn't find it. Instead I found about 3,490,000 Google results for traveling with your girlfriend. 3,150,000 results for traveling with your boyfriend. Who knew traveling with your bf/gf could cause over 6 million intern […]

December 29th 30th 31st is as good a time as any to make some New Years Resolutions and I'm going to try something new. I'm making resolutions I can keep.1. I will begin and end several fitness regimes including walking when it's convenient and buying a grocery cart full of produce and unprocessed groceries on Sunday, eating healthy on Monday […]

Festivus: A holiday invented by Frank Costanza, a character on the hit 1990s sitcom Seinfeld. Its symbol is the aluminium pole. Traditional Festivus activities include the Feats of Strength (typically ending with someone in tears) and the Airing of Grievances (also often ending in tears).While I have erected a Christmas tree and shopped for things people do […]

That day started out like any other in my recently turbulent existence. I was back in Indiana for job interviews, working from the apartment and had hit pause for breakfast. The scent of sauteed mushrooms lingered as I forked the first bite of omelet into my mouth.A text notification broke the silence. "Can you check on Kay? She didn't show up for […]

A couple of years ago my friend Sherry Stanfa-Stanley launched the 52/52 Project which is, in her words, "jumping the curb, taking a detour from the cul-de-sac to visit personally unexplored territories."With clear-eyed intention, Sherry shook up her life, wrote about it and made me and her other fans laugh and think. Her experiences ranged from th […]

‘Battling nomads earned you buckets of trouble around 2,500 B.C., reports an international archeology team. Scars too. But at least you earned yourself a fancy burial. Two Bronze Age burials in a tomb from the ancient trade town of Terqa, a Mesopatamian archeological site in modern-day Syria. “The tomb from Terqa consisted of two chambers […]

Bog Butter found in a timber vessel in a bog at Shancloon near Caherlistrane, north Galway, could be 2,000 to 2,500 years old, according to a specialist from the National Museum of Ireland. The butter, weighing almost two stone, was found in a timber keg which may have been hewn from a tree trunk and […]

Evolution of the Evolutionarily Minded ScienceDaily — In the century and a half since Charles Darwin’s publication of The Origin of Species, evolutionary theory has become the bedrock of modern biology, yet its application to the understanding of the human mind remains controversial. For the past 30 years, evolutionary interpretation of human cognition has b […]

From ‘National Geographic': ‘In a locally well known cave near an industrial town in Spain, researchers have unexpectedly discovered faint images of horses and hand prints dating back some 25,000 years.’ Continue to read here.

While many are blaming a huge area of high pressure that’s compressing hot, moist air beneath it for the ‘heat dome’ that has plagued the United States lately, it is of note that it came to its own in the midst of the childish behavior of the political party called ‘Republicans’ in that country. Untold […]

From ‘Archaeology‘: ‘The warrior women known to ancient Greek authors as Amazons were long thought to be creatures of myth. Now 50 ancient burial mounds near the town of Pokrovka, Russia, near the Kazakhstan border, have yielded skeletons of women buried with weapons, suggesting the Greek tales may have had some basis in fact. Nomads […]